David Gauke’s long-awaited Sentencing Review is here. If its recommendations are accepted, we will see thousands of people spared jail and thousands of inmates released as early as a third of the way through their sentence.
The government is relying on the review to save the justice system from collapse. As the Lord Chancellor explained just last week, despite plans to build another 14,000 prison places, the system simply can not keep pace with the growth in our prison population. For months now, ministers and officials have been focused on keeping just enough space in the prison system until the Sentencing Review can be implemented. So now it has arrived, will it avert disaster?
Probation will need every penny
In some ways, Gauke’s recommendations are radical. The Review has made five core recommendations, which they estimate in total will reduce the prison population by 10,300 below what it would have been in 2028.
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